


Something broken about us

by wanderingalonelypath



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Betty and Archie cheated and Veronica and Jug deal with it, F/M, Revenge Sex, Semi-explicit sex, a lot of crying, barchie only mentioned, drunk teenage decisions, drunk teenagers, kind of, more like angry-sad sex, post 4x17
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:27:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23682379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanderingalonelypath/pseuds/wanderingalonelypath
Summary: As Jughead watched the grainy figures of his-former-best friend and the-former-love-of-his-life kiss in a scene straight out of a B-Rate romcom, the only thought he had was that he should have seen this coming.
Relationships: Archie Andrews/Betty Cooper, Jughead Jones/Veronica Lodge
Comments: 12
Kudos: 111





	Something broken about us

**Author's Note:**

> This episode inspired me enough to post my first work in the fandom, so welcome to the angst train.

He should have seen it since that night at Pop’s, where it felt more like he was looking through the window rather than sitting in the booth with Betty, Veronica, and Archie. Archie was the proverbial sun around which all the planets rotated: Betty, Veronica, Valerie, Josie, hell, even Ms. Grundy was all drawn into orbit around him.

The worst part was, he couldn’t even exclude himself from that list.

The film from Riverdale’s voyeur stopped, skipped, and started all over again, with Riverdale’s perfect couple crooning out the first notes of their love song, two asteroids on collision course with each other with one minute and forty-five seconds till impact. He wanted to turn the shitty old TV off but soon found it wasn’t necessary; the tears blurring his eyes were doing a fine job of blocking the scene.

He contented himself with swiveling around in his chair, instead facing the cot in the corner, and fuck, that was almost worse. A hundred poisoned memories flickered through his mind, the most recent being the two of them right before they cracked the would-be murders right down the middle. When Betty handed him the beanie she made herself and gave him her sweet, quirked smile. “You know you’re the only man for me, Jug.”

He wondered how long she had been lying. If it started when they fake dated to cover his fake death or if she held her love for him all this time, since sophomore year, before Jughead kissed her in her bedroom what felt like a thousand years ago.

They were still singing that stupid song behind him and he would never be able to listen to it now without thinking of the two of them, circling each other in a fucked up metaphor of how they had been circling each other for years, while telling Jughead and Veronica that they were the only ones for them.

Shit. _Veronica. ___

__He put his head in his hands then, rubbing his eyes so hard static exploded behind his eyelids. He didn’t stop there, scrubbing his hands through his hair with a jerky movement that knocked the beanie right off his head. Four lives hinged on his next decision._ _

__“We’re not so different, you and me.”_ _

__He yanked the tape out harshly and he was swinging his jacket on with shaky fingers, shoving the tape in one of the pockets, not bothering to put out all the candles behind him, something half-mad and half-savage inside him wishing they would burn down that stupid bunker and erase all the times he had made love to Betty in it. It took him no time at all to push his bike to the road and swing onto it, setting course for Pop’s without a second thought, knowing Veronica would most likely be in the speakeasy at this time of night._ _

__He didn’t even realize he had left the beanie in the bunker until Pop’s fluorescent sign flickered above him._ _

____________ _

__

__If anything could be said about Veronica Lodge, it was that she had a damn good poker face._ _

__Her office in the speakeasy was small enough that he had to lean against the wall behind her desk chair, slumped back with his head angled toward the ceiling so he didn’t have to watch it all again. Veronica was silent throughout the entirety of it, and the click of the VCR when she turned it off was deafening in the silence._ _

__A moment passed, and then-”We were both idiots, weren’t we?”_ _

__And it wasn’t angry, or heartbroken, or shocked, but so flat and tired that he had to let out a sharp laugh in agreement, because Betty and Archie told them exactly who they were from the very beginning and they just didn’t believe them._ _

__Veronica led him back out into the speakeasy proper and waved him toward the bar with a vague hand motion, heading towards the stairs. He sat there just long enough to start seriously eyeing the bottles behind it before she came back, shutting off all but the mood lights behind her. “I told Pop La Bonne Nuit won’t be opening tonight.” And she was sliding behind the bar, pulling out two glasses, and Jughead couldn’t help but agree that they weren’t so different after all._ _

__After three bouts of crying, some shouting, some drunken singing, and throwing a few cheap bottles of tequila at the walls to watch them shatter, they ended up behind the bar, on the floor with their backs pressed to the underneath of it. Veronica had long since kicked off her heels and Jughead’s jacket had been tossed somewhere near the stage. They were passing a bottle of wine between them and Jughead’s drunk brain was focusing on the fact that he was swapping spit with Veronica Lodge rather than the fact that they both got cheated on with each other’s best friend._ _

__“We...we didn’t deserve it.”_ _

__She slurred it against his shoulder but he could tell she meant it and, even more shocking, that he believed her. Maybe he wasn’t always the perfect boyfriend or the best guy but dammit, he loved Betty with everything in him and tried his best to make her happy and it should have been enough. It wasn’t, but it should’ve been._ _

__And Veronica, poor Veronica._ _

__His head was somewhere in the clouds and his limbs were light and fuzzy, and his shirt was slowly getting wet with Veronica’s tears as she leaned against his shoulder. He felt his heart nearly split again as she shook against him, overwhelmed with how unfair all of this was and he pressed a soft, slow kiss to the top of her head, his entire chest aching. She looked up at him then, teary-eyed and strong and so, so broken. He wanted to blame it on the booze, or the heartbreak, or the way the soft orange lights played across the caramel skin of her cheek, but he was leaning in to press his lips against hers before he even realized he was doing it._ _

__He came to his senses a few seconds after their lips touched, unresponsive, and tried to pull away but her hand was snaking behind his head to reel him in. He knew that this was a terrible, stupid, drunken teenage thing to do but he couldn’t bring himself to care as Veronica slung and leg over him and slid into his lap, fingers tangling in his hair to angle his head perfectly. He slipped his arms around her waist, feeling the thick, expensive fabric of her skirt as it bunched around her thighs, so confident and unlike Betty that it brought unbidden tears to his eyes._ _

__But he was tired of crying, and yelling, and lamenting about the shitty hand he had been dealt. Jughead Jones decided that tonight, he deserved to feel _good. _____

____It was rushed, and desperate, and a bit angry despite his best wishes, but Veronica was moaning into his mouth and clenching around him so sweetly it sent electricity up his spine. One of his hands gripped her hip so hard he was sure there would be a bruise tomorrow, while the other was pushing at the curve of her jaw, angling his head up so he could suck a mark on her throat that would definitely be a bruise tomorrow._ _ _ _

____Her thighs flexed as she rose up again, sliding back down his shaft and throwing her head back and _god, _Archie was so stupid to ever give this up.___ _ _ _

______After it was over and they laid panting on the bar floor, Veronica started crying again. He couldn’t say anything over the pit in his own throat, so he pulled her close until her face was tucked into the crook of his neck, wrapped his arms around her tight, and let his own tears fall._ _ _ _ _ _


End file.
